They paid HOW much?

What a week in gaming this has been. The world of gaming has been rocked by one of, if not the biggest ever story.

Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 Billion dollars! That is not a typo, almost 70 BILLION dollars in order to buy up Activision-Blizzard lock, stock and barrel.

This is of course not something that one does easily, it's not a carton of milk and a bag of oranges. It was different when Microsoft bought Zenimax Media with Bethesda Game Studios for $7.5 billion, as Activision-Blizzard is publicly traded. Zenimax was privately owned and even then, there was a lot of scrutiny by regulatory bodies to make sure everything was done right. With Activision-Blizzard being public, there is even more red tape to wade through. The deal is expected to to be finalized during the summer of 2023.

In case you are wondering how they can afford this, Microsoft is loosely valued at over 4 trillion dollars, so even though it is an astronomic amount of money, they have the cash to get the job done.

Of course this has given rise to an enormous amount of questions some of which have been answered.

What does this mean for the disgraced President and CEO of Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick? Well, he will stay in charge until the deal is final after which he “will remain available” in his own words. Phil Spencer the CEO of Microsoft Gaming has said that Activision-Blizzard will answer to him directly, so that probably means Kotick is being booted, probably with a golden parachute. Many insiders agree that Kotick is being let go, particularly since his name is too tarnished, especially with the many scandals that have rocked Activision-Blizzard lately, and his complicity and/or failure to do something about them.

Why are they selling? This is speculation territory, but Kotick did already ask Facebook if they would be interested in buying but got turned down. The most likely answer is that Kotick wants to go out on a high, and a big deal like this looks good on his resume should he choose to go elsewhere. Due to the scandals there has been more talk than usual to kick him out and even Coca-Cola has been talking of removing him from their board. With the scandals in mind, Microsoft probably got a good deal.

How will this affect gaming in general? Impossible to say at this stage. What is known is that Sony, the owners and creators of the Playstation, the biggest rival to Microsoft's Xbox, lost 20 billion in market value in one day. The stock price is climbing already, but it must have been quite a shock to them.

As for games on the Playstation, Spencer has stated that they will honor ongoing deals, which means that games slated for release on the Playstation will still do so, but whether Microsoft will continue to sell their games on the competitors console remains to be seen. This might force Sony to become more PC friendly, but again, it is too early to tell.

So what are they buying for all that money? Well the list is too big for this post, but to skim the surface; Activision-Blizzard, Infinity Ward, King, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and more. Concerning games; Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush, all the old Sierra Games, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and much more. The last two are very ironic as both Crash and Spyro were Playstation 1 mascots.

Phil Spencer has expressed a love and interest for many of the older titles included in the buyout, and I for one would welcome remasters of the old Sierra adventure titles. Whatever this mega deal will mean in the future we can't yet say. Will World of Warcraft come to the Xbox? Will it be on their Xbox and/or PC Pass? We don't know. What we do know is that although monopolies are bad, Activision-Blizzard has been in such a sorry state for so long that for them and their titles, this can only be good. The other thing we can say for certain is that this has catapulted Microsoft to the top of the gaming world.

When I learn more I'll let you know, but that's enough for today. Join me again next time, and until then have a great and safe week!

The end of 2020

 

The last post for 2020. Some good things, lots of bad things and a whole barrel full of seriously annoying things. I don't think anyone is sad to see 2020 go away. Here's hoping '21 is going to be better.

The world has seen mass protests against corrupt governments, and of course Covid-19 dominated everything everyone did and although vaccines are slowly being distributed we're not out of the woods yet, so keep using masks and washing your hands. One day it'll be over.

But that's enough real world stuff. The world of gaming has had it's share of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moments as well.

Looking back in this blog I was surprised to see that the failed launch of Warcraft III Refunded Reforged, was in February, this year. I could have sworn that it was last year, but no. Time has managed to both rush and crawl by at the same time.

Loot-boxes spent a lot of time in the news this year, culminating in both The Netherlands and The UK declaring them as gambling. I still maintain that it is perfectly possible to make games that are fun, fair and capable of generating extra income for the developers/publishers without resorting to garbage gambling mechanics.

The new, big game debacle has of course been the dramatic launch of Cyberpunk 2077. From working okay-ish on PC to bad on console to not at all on last gen consoles, few have been entirely happy. CD Project Red are naturally working hard to fix the issues, like a bug where if you looted too much stuff, it corrupted your save file. It wasn't the triumphant launch CDPR and everyone else wanted, but I don't think it's a disaster either. From what I've seen it is going to become a fantastic game. One day.

In the mean time, there are multiple lawsuits flying around, the CDPR devs are claiming the company leaders are lying, Sony removed the game from the PS Store and... well it seems almost appropriate that the original pen-and-paper rpg was called Cyberpunk 2020, and seeing as how 2020 has treated everyone, well, I don't know. There is a sarcastic joke in there somewhere, find it if you want to.

If this year has taught me anything else gaming wise, it is don't pre-order, do your own research instead of relying on biased media, don't give in to FOMO (fear of missing out), don't buy unfinished games, and have patience.

It's going to be interesting to see what the new year brings and despite the previous one, and the perhaps somewhat bleak tone of this post, I am optimistic. So I hope you will continue to visit me here on Eccentric Spheres and share in what's to come.

That's that. Join me again next year, until then have a great week, stay safe and don't blow yourself up with fireworks! See you in 2021!

More Game News

 

A new week and new news. It's a case of the good, the bad and the ugly but not in that order.

We'll start with the bad.

NBA 2K21 was released recently, and as one might expect from a modern sports game, it comes with all the lootboxes one could want. However, 2K Games managed to really give the nasty taste of the lootbox a new twist. The lootboxes, or in this case card packs, contain random players with varying stats. One of the most sought after player in this case was James Harden and the player base, eager to gain an advantage over the competition forked over a lot of money as soon as they could for a chance to get Harden. The twist? For the first 23 minutes after release, Harden wasn't even in the packs! False advertising? Outright fraud? You decide.

This story broke on Reddit, and the story spread quickly, but since 2K hasn't (to my knowledge) commented I can't be 100% sure it happened. However I really wouldn't be surprised. Either way it's another sobering reason to avoid lootboxes and pay-2-win.

Time for the ugly.

The highly anticipated Playstation 5 is just around the corner, with a release date of November 12^th. A much lauded feature is backwards compatibility for all but a small handful of games, which means you can play older PS4 titles on the new system and even port over your saves. The issue of backwards compatibility is one that has been hotly debated in the console world going back a long time and players are pleased about the PS5's ability to do so.

For those not in the know, back in 2014, Konami released P.T. or Playable Teaser to hype up their upcoming Silent Hills game by veteran game director Hideo Kojima and movie director Guillermo del Toro. Sadly, the game was canceled after Konami and Kojima had a bitter falling out, and Konami decided to focus mainly on Pachinko machines.

The P.T. however remained available for a time, and it was incredibly popular. Polygon recently ported P.T. to their review copy of the PS5 and found that it worked perfectly. Then apparently Konami got wind of this and removed it from the list of games that can be ported to the PS5. Sony has confirmed that this decision came from Konami and not from them.

Whether this is due to some petty desire for vengeance against Kojima, or general pettiness in general no one knows, but since new copies of P.T. can't be downloaded, it seems weird to bother limiting access to the fairly small group of players who still has it. Now there is a rumor of a rumor that a new Silent Hill game is in the works, which could explain the decision, but with Konami's recent track record, I doubt it. Whatever the reason may be, it's an ugly thing to do.

Now for the good. Hopefully.

Bioware has finally announced the long awaited remaster of their incredible sci-fi masterpiece, the Mass Effect trilogy. The remaster will include the entire trilogy, all DLC and extra promotional items, all available in modern resolutions. Good news, if they do it right. After all, not all remasters are created equal. Earlier this year, Blizzard released their catastrophic remaster of Warcraft 3 Reforged, which quickly became known as Warcraft 3 Refunded.

I have high hopes for this, I love the original Mass Effect games, and if Bioware sits down and does the work it can become a best seller. If they rely on “Bioware magic” like with Anthem, it will be garbage, and dead before arrival.

They also announced that a new Mass Effect game is in the works, but seeing as what they did with Mass Effect Andromeda, this is very much a question mark, might be good, might be worth skipping. Time will tell. Either way, they still have to finish and ship Dragon Age 4, so this game is far away.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, have a great week and stay safe!

Game News

 

It's been a tumultuous week in game news.

Cyberpunk 2077 got delayed again. Not just again but for the third time. I absolutely support finishing a game before releasing it, and it is a simple fact that COVID has made everyone's lives difficult. A third delay, however is fairly unheard of, even though it may be needed. Then CD Project Red's boss made some really dumb comments about crunch and was forced to apologize. The end result was a 25% drop in stock value which is never good, although it is rising again. I'm sure Cyberpunk 2077 will be released one day before 2077. Maybe.

Speaking of delayed, the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands got delayed a while back but the new release date is set as November 23-24 (depending on region) for those who are interested but maybe hadn't heard.

*edit* I got the date wrong when I wrote this. the above date should be correct*

 

Google Stadia Games & Entertainment Creative Director, Alex Hutchinson caused a storm when he tweeted that streamers and let's players should pay a license fee to game companies in order to stream games. This elicited a reaction ranging from scornful laughter to pure anger from gamers and creators worldwide.

Many sources from developers to journalists pointed out that game companies benefit hugely from the streaming community as it is, and in fact many give out free copies of their games to streamers in order to promote their product. Live-streams and let's plays are one of, if not the best form of advertisement in the games industry today, which makes Alex's statement ignorant and foolish. Google Stadia has since stated:

“The recent tweets by Alex Hutchinson, creative director at the Montreal Studio of Stadia Games and Entertainment, do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google.”

Hutchinson has also been forced to state that all his opinions are purely his own. Way to prove you are out of touch from your own job.

Finally, EA got their asses handed to them by the Dutch District Court. The debacle surrounding EA's FIFA lootboxes is nothing new and back in 2018 they became illegal in Belgium. Now the Dutch court has given the Netherlands Gambling Authority, Ksa (Kansspelautoriteit) the authority to fine EA $10 million for illegal gambling.

EA, of course, will still try to appeal, forever claiming that they don't agree with scientific evidence concerning lootboxes, gambling and minors. They also keep yammering on about how the card packs and lootboxes are “surprise mechanics” and so on. The sands are running out on this anti-consumer practice, and in my opinion, game publishers who push for this aggressive monetization should read the fable about the goose who laid golden eggs. It fits today's game market perfectly, and there are quite a few publishers who are sharpening the knives.

On top of this, there is a class action lawsuit in California and one in Canada accusing EA of illegal gambling and promoting gambling to children. After all, FIFA is rated E for Everyone, which includes the kids.

That is that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week and stay safe! (Don't forget to wash your hands).

News time

 

Alright, game news time!

The pre-patch for World of Warcraft Shadowlands is almost upon us. This is the patch that adds the changes to the game that are not bound by owning the new expansion, including access to Battle for Azeroth (the current expansion), new crafting, new character customization options etc.

A background download has been available for a few days now which likely means that the pre-patch could come this week or the next. This is backed up by the fact that Shadowlands is just about a month away for those who intend to buy it or have already bought it.

Exciting times ahead there.

The hugely anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077 is being released on November 19th, and the specs have been released. It looks like they have somehow managed to keep the minimum system requirements incredibly low for such a massive and complex game.

Here is a PCGamer article with the requirements:

https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-pc-system-requirements/

In other news, the battle between Epic Games and Apple continues. A new hearing is set for the 28^th, and it is going to be interesting. For those not in the know, Epic intentionally broke the Terms of Service with Apple and promptly got kicked off the iOS store. Legal papers quickly started to fly and now it remains to see what will happen. Epic tried to rally the masses in support but they just got mad at Epic instead.

Apple alleges that it was a publicity stunt to raise interest in order to combat falling Fortnite numbers, but Epic claims they are going as strong as ever, while simultaneously whining that this will cause irreparable harm to their product. Go figure... Either way, it seems that Epic Games are loosing around $26 million per month from being kicked off the Apple store. Substantial losses for any company.

In other mixed news, the new GTX 30 series of graphic cards was released and immediately the scalpers grabbed them all using bots to resell at enormous mark-ups. This has of course caused a stir and perhaps one day, scalpers will disappear. I for one hope so, though I'm not holding my breath..

EA is being sued in California in a class action suit with over 100 plaintiffs seeking damages for gambling mechanics.

And finally both the next gen Xbox and Playstation have finally been priced. The PS is $400 for the digital only version and $500 for the version that can read disks. The Xbox series S is $300 and the series X is $500. The tech specs for both machines are easily available so do your research before you buy.

That's that. Join me again next time and until then have a fantastic week and stay safe!

Game News

 

Alright, it is time for some game news.

Blizzard has been in the news again, this time for financial reasons. It has been a know fact for over a decade that Blizzard pays low wages compared to other companies in the AAA industry. They have always pushed the passion line, i.e. people are such fans its a bit of a privilege to work there, so you don't need as much money.

Staff has now started comparing salaries and are furious at how little they are earning. Seeing how Blizz HQ is in Irvine, California, it's no wonder their workers are broke. Irvine is not the most expensive city in the US, but it is still pretty eye-wateringly expensive. Anyone who works for a living knows that landlords and grocery stores don't accept passion instead of money, but now it has hit a bit of a boiling point.

Stories have been shared about how staffers are forced to skip meals, how they have to do extra work as Uber drivers, how they even have to give up even talking about having kids as they know that can't afford it. At the same time, Activision-Blizzard keeps reporting record profits and their CEO Bobby Kotick has apparently earned about $40 million this year. Some shareholders have tried to stop Kotick from earning his obscene bonuses, but failed. Kotick has even been called the most over payed CEO in the world...

The bottom line is that Blizzard may well see an imminent brain-drain, if too many of their seasoned talent find better payed positions elsewhere. There seem to be a golden goose moral in here somewhere.

Bioware are still trying to get Anthem fixed. After a... lets call it lack-luster initial performance, they pulled the game in an attempt to fix it.

Back during the 6-8 years of development time Anthem had, the production leads refused to even look at what the competition was doing, and now it seems they are just copying their competition wholesale.

When you are designing something like a game you have to take in to account what the competition is doing. Otherwise you may end up creating cheap knock-off or even committing theft of intellectual property. You can't create in a vacuum. We'll see if their efforts pay off, but for my part I doubt it. The very name Anthem is now a poisoned pill and few gamers are going to want to swallow it to see if it tastes good.

Finally there have been talk of a new method of revenue generation in the AAA industry: In-game ads.

It's all in an early brainstorming stage, but there are elements who wants to integrate ads inside PC and console gaming much like in mobile gaming. Off the cuff I think it's a reprehensible idea, but to be fair there are a couple of minor ways I could possibly accept it. If it is an option you can turn off, if it does not handicap the player and you earn something extra for watching the ads, then maybe? If you could offset a subscription by seeing some ads in loadscreens, then maybe?

The problem is that the greed of these executives is beyond control and I have 0% trust in their abilities to rein themselves in. Look at the lootbox drama for an example.

Speaking of lootboxes, this may be a reaction to the increased ban on the addictive little boxes of doom. Either way, time will tell, but I don't think this will go over well at all.

That's that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week and stay safe and healthy!